Distributism and Orthodox Social Thought

Jason Streit, writing over at The Distributist Review (TDR), has a brief article up entitled “Distributism from the East.” In it, Streit sketches an argument for how distributist principles (which have been rooted historically in Roman Catholic theology) are compatible with Eastern Orthodoxy. This is an under-explored topic, though TDR has given some space to it in the past. For instance, Joseph Pearce’s piece “Solzhenitsyn and Distributism” explores the distributist social vision of one of 20th C. Russian Orthodoxy’s greatest political thinkers.

Unfortunately, the Acton Institute already has a leg-up on attempting to direct (American) Orthodoxy’s socio-economic teaching along liberal lines. Calvinist convert Dylan Pahman, for instance, has invested a great deal of energy attempting to sell the lie that Orthodoxy and capitalism go hand-in-hand despite the numerous reservations issued by various Orthodox bishops conferences. Orthodox clerics have gotten into the game as well. Fr. Johannes Jacobse lashed out some time ago against those Orthodox skeptical of the Acton Institute — an incident I discussed and critiqued here.

My sincere hope is that TDR and perhaps some Orthodox-grown outlets will continue to take a serious look at how to build an authentically Christian socio-economic ordo, one which takes the Gospel, rather than Austrian economics and neoliberal ideology, seriously. On such matters, faithful Catholics and Orthodox should (finally!) find much to agree about.